Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The president of the AGU (American Geophysical Union), Mike McPhaden, has issued this statement, and sent to all AGU members. I welcome this statement very much, as it is withstanding the temptation of giving up "principles of scientific integrity" for obtaining short-term advantages in gaining public attention. Science is a process with long-term perspectives, a social asset with value beyond the heat of the day. I value this statement in particular after having seen knee-jerk apologetic assertions, following the concept that "the opponent of my opponent is my friend". The assertion "In doing so he compromised AGU’s credibility as a scientific society weakened the public’s trust in scientists, and produced fresh fuel for the unproductive and seemingly endless ideological firestorm surrounding the reality of the Earth’s changing climate." explains the situation well.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Bill McGuire, a volcanologist from University College London, claims that climate change will lead to more, and more violent earthquakes. Here are a few quotes from an article in the Guardian. This is the headline:

Climate change will shake the Earth

A changing climate isn't just about floods, droughts and heatwaves. It brings erupting volcanoes and catastrophic earthquakes too

To do climate science sustainably, a number of constraints in practicing research and communicating science need to be implemented. Among them are the admission of uncertainty and the possibility for future revision, the recognition that scientific knowledge is challenged and influenced by cultural constructions, and the usage of accurate language, which is not conflicting with every-day language. That scientific knowledge does not directly lead to political conclusions must also be recognized. A few elements needed for a successful science-public dialog are listed and discussed in the forthcoming articlevon Storch, H., 2012: Sustainable climate science, In: M. Reckermann, K. Brander, B. MacKenzie and A. Omstedt (eds): Climate Impacts on the Baltic Sea: From Science to Policy, 201-209 in press

Reports indicate misconduct by an activist climate scientist (see below). We consider this case a very exciting demonstration of the situation the issue and science of climate finds itself in, and invite readers for discussion, also how this case compares with ClimateGate.

about internal processes within the Heartland Institute (such as funding by whom and of whom).For details see http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2012 Climate Strategy.pdf.

If true, the details of the report are highly relevant and point towards a larger, coordinated activity on the side of many visible US skeptics. The blog does not refer to a source, as in case of the Climate-gate affair with the CRU mails - are the claims trustworthy?

We are now closing this thread; as Klimazwiebel is legally responsible also for readers comments, we are prepared to delete comments which would constitute "falsche Tatsachenaussagen" (cf. Rahmstorf verdict). Thus, if somebody considers some comments as such, please contact us, and we will check.

A new thread will be opened soon - as the affair is evolving into a another chapter of post-normal science.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Despite the best science, and good arguments, sometimes people don't listen. In the climate change debate this has annoyed many people so they seek examples for inspiration. One is the fight against tobacco, where sound health advice seems to have won against the industry (and addicted smokers). Behaviour change is possible, and powerful vested interests can be fought back through campaigns, or so the message goes.

In the following, you will find some quotes from an article in the New York Times from February 2009, with the headline "A rare deep freeze warms the Dutch soul". Please take your time and consider each of the statements thoughtfully. It seems to be a good exercise to find out what we talk about when we talk about the weather and / or climate change.

Having done so, maybe you have some time to go out for a walk. In Hamburg, nearly everybody is out on the frozen Alster lake today - maybe to find out how it feels to be Nordic and to warm their Hamburg soul. Try yourself, wherever you are.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Fritz Vahrenholt and Sebastian Lüning, both from RWE (1), have published a book "Kalte Sonne - Warum die Klimakatastrophe nicht stattfindet", which claims that greenhouse gases would play only a minor role in changing climate, while solar activities would be dominant. He goes so far to explicitly predict a cooling – of 0.2 to 0.3 C until 2035. “That the sun and its impact on Earth will present us cooler times in the first half of the present hundred years, is … certain.” (my translations; p. 35)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Colleagues from Hamburg’s KlimaCampus – social scientists Mike Schäfer and Monika Taddicken – are currently conducting a survey about on-line and off-line communication about climate. It takes approx. 15 minutes to fill in the questionnaire (which is only available in German). If you are interested to participate, here is the link to the survey: http://online.tns-global.com/wix/p1155419371.aspx?b=22

Monday, February 6, 2012

Germany's most politically correct family soap, Lindenstrasse, features in its latest edition a teenage protest action against climate change. Using the new opportunities offered by Facebook, a young female protagonist mobilizes a nation wide flashmob. You can watch it here (the action starts around 22mins into it)http://www.ardmediathek.de/ard/servlet/content/3517136?documentId=9451936

Sunday, February 5, 2012

It seems to be a little off-key to compare the similarities (and differences) between slavery and the use of fossil fuel, but nonetheless we can gain a lot from doing so. "Once men abused slaves, now we abuse fossil fuel" is the title of a piece by Jean Francois Mouhot in the Guardian (based on an article in climate change - free pdf available!).
The basic argument is as sharp as a razor blade:

Why is all of this relevant for climate change policy? Our contemporary economies have become extremely dependent on fossil fuels, just as slave societies were dependent on their slaves – indeed far more than the latter ever were. As one scholar remarked: "That US Congressmen tend to rationalise fossil fuel use despite climate risks to future generations just as southern congressmen rationalised slavery despite ideals of equality is perhaps unsurprising."

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The participants of KLIMAZWIEBEL are made of a diverse group of people interested in the climate issue; among them people, who consider the man-made climate change explanation as true, and others, who consider this explanation false. We have scientists and lay people; natural scientists and social scientists. People with different cultural and professional backgrounds. This is a unique resource for a relevant and inspiring discussion. This resource needs sustainable management by everybody. Therefore we ask to pay attention to these rules:

1. We do not want to see insults, ad hominem comments, lengthy tirades, ongoing repetitions, forms of disrespect to opponents. Also lengthy presentation of amateur-theories are not welcomed. When violating these rules, postings will be deleted.2. Please limit your contributions to the issues of the different threads.3. Please give your name or use an alias - comments from "anonymous" should be avoided.4. When you feel yourself provoked, please restrain from ranting; instead try to delay your response for a couple of hours, when your anger has evaporated somewhat.5. If you wan to submit a posting (begin a new thread), send it to either Eduardo Zorita or Hans von Storch - we publish it within short time. But please, only articles related to climate science and climate policy.6. Use whatever language you want. But maybe not a language which is rarely understood in Hamburg.